Once a Senshi
by Squirrel holding a bazooka
Summary: France is under attack by the Dark Kingdom, Luna is threatening to strip the senshi of their powers, and everyone seems to have a secret. But Luna has forgotten one thing: once a senshi, always a senshi.


I don't own Sailor Moon. As for the little clock thing before each new location, it goes like this:

Days: Hours: Minutes: Seconds: Milliseconds

* * *

15:22:18:32:16

Tears filled the eyes of both Chloe and Makoto at the airport. Mamoru seemed hesitant, if nothing else, about even being there. There was absolutely no way he would join in on the hug-fest, but he really did have to show the redhead that there were no hard feelings.

Even though there were.

Chloe Dupont's past life, Diônê Jovia, had been pure evil due to... well, he didn't quite know what. Long story short, she killed a lot of people, and the evil that was left in her manifested itself into a new life that nearly killed them all in this life. Better yet, she used to be and was now Sailor Jupiter, senshi of thunder and courage.

The other girl, the one he had known much longer with her brown hair in a ponytail, was Makoto Kino, one of his own guards, Tanzanite. This had been a long way to discovering, as she was temporarily Sailor Jupiter due to some sort of pact the two girls had made in their past lives. For someone who was supposed to tell him everything she knew, Makoto kept a lot to herself.

And then there was him. Mamoru Chiba. Formerly known as Endymion Terra, prince of Earth, and the object of Diônê Jovia's affections. Part of what had led to his death was Diônê's jealousy of his relationship with the Lunarian princess, Serenity. He was also seeing the princess in this life, but Chloe seemed to hold no grudge about it.

"I'm going to miss you so much!" Chloe exclaimed, both females going into full-on girly mode.

The two pulled away, both ready to burst into tears. "We'll call each other every day," Makoto decided, and the two shared another brief hug.

"I'm... sorry to see you go," Mamoru lied, almost smoothly at that. It was far better than his previous attempts to let bygones be bygones with the girl. "You'll have to come back soon."

Chloe smiled, seeming to have bought it. Her smile faded to a serious manner for a moment. "Oh, thank you, Mamoru-kun. I was so worried that you were mad at me for... everything."

Oh, he was.

The smile popped back on her face as quickly as it had vanished. "Well, I've got to go, or I'll miss my flight. It was so wonderful meeting you all." On that note, the redhead walked over to security, sparing a look over her shoulder and a wave to the two Terrans.

When it was time for her to put her things in one of the screening bins, she removed the transformation pen for Jupiter from her boot, covering it up with her jacket.

* * *

15:15:29:57:45

While Chloe sat content on the plane, dreaming of being back home with her friends, things in Paris were changing. Very little was as it had been six months ago, though one thing would always stand: the Eiffel Tower.

It was a joyous, sunny day in Paris, and tourists and natives alike swarmed the iron beast, looking for a way to spend their day or just to see it. At seven a.m., the bright sun gleamed off the otherwise dull metal, illuminating the world around it.

A small whistle was the only warning before something crashed into one of the legs of the tower. Gasps and screams filled the area, people clearing out of the way when the structure started to tip.

The groan of bending metal finally gave way to a strong cracking sound, and the pride of France toppled to the ground.

* * *

15:13:38:22:07

"_This just in, the Eiffel Tower has been attacked,_" the television reporter claimed on the screen. Setsuna frowned, thinking to herself about the future that was to come.

"I guess it's time," she whispered. She closed the cover on her watch, ending the broadcast as she approached the Hikawa Shrine.

The call of Phobos and Deimos squawked in her ears, they never having liked her that much. Not that she could blame them. Her father was one of the most revered people of the ancient world.

Setsuna frowned, fixing her hair quickly in its spiffy French twist and went on into the building. Luna had something to talk to them about, and she had a pretty good idea what. Things like this had a tendency to end poorly, and the storm clouds on the horizon likely had nothing to do with Chloe's power.

Seeing Rei standing in the doorframe only heightened her awareness of the situation. The miko did not look happy. In fact, she looked fairly worried about the situation. "Something's on the horizon," she said as Setsuna came nearer.

In a whisper, not quite loud enough for Rei to hear, Setsuna replied, "You have no idea."

The two walked into the shrine, revealing the senshi, Mamoru, Makoto, Luna, and Artemis. The felines were pacing the room, like they knew they were the bearers of bad news and were getting ready to present. "Ahem," Luna cleared her throat, prolonging the inevitable. "There is something you need to know about your powers... something that has recently come up."

"You've had your powers for almost three years now, and you're all still alive," Artemis commented. "Compared to others, this is nothing short of a miracle."

"Others?" Ami asked, perking up. "What others?" The gears were turning in the blunette's head. After all, who protected the world from the Dark Kingdom before them?

Luna and Artemis shared a worried look before the former spoke. "Every two years, the planetary powers that you have are passed on. You all have been lucky to have nearly three years with your powers, and it's an even greater miracle that you're all alive. In other groups, it was rare for everyone to survive."

Minako's eyes drooped, realization coming on her face. "Well, that's because we're the actual senshi reincarnated... and we shouldn't just pass our powers on." Luna and Artemis looked sheepish, confirming the blonde's fears. "No, Luna, Artemis, you can't take our powers!"

That one sentence got everyone on high alert. They gave the cats their full attention, and Artemis went on, "You see, the powers generally relocate to whatever city the powers are needed in. When you got your powers, the city was Tokyo. Now, it's Paris. Divine intervention took place and trans-located Mako-chan's powers to Chloe-san, but we have to strip the rest of you of your powers so we may pass them on to the next generation."

"No!" Usagi exclaimed. "We use our powers to help people."

"The reason people died was because they were given their powers after the attacks started and weren't prepared to fight," Michiru agreed, recalling just years ago that she had been tricked into trusting Skylar, apprentice to the Elementals and servant of the Dark Kingdom.

Makoto frowned and just sat there, knowing she was in no place to speak. She would still have her powers, seeing as hers weren't planetary. Still, she couldn't help but see the reasoning.

Hotaru said nothing, simply getting up and storming out of the shrine. "Hotaru-chan, wait!" Michiru called, getting up to follow the girl with Haruka and Setsuna. Arguing could be heard growing fainter and fainter until it disappeared completely, leaving the inners, felines, Mamoru and Makoto sitting in the room.

"I think you should give up your powers," Makoto finally confessed. "It could open doors for everyone to become their own person and learn how to operate their own powers, something different than what we had before."

Rei scoffed. "Easy for you to say," she grumbled, rolling her eyes. "You already have some new set of powers. You'll lose nothing from this transfer. But we don't know if we'll gain something. For some of us, this is everything, and you're asking us to throw it away!"

"I'm not asking you to throw anything away!" Makoto objected. "You just need to open yourself to something new."

"Mako-chan is right," Artemis insisted. "If you keep at this, you could die."

Mamoru stood up angrily, helping Usagi up as well. "And if we don't, ten other people will," he growled before he and Usagi left.

"They're right," Ami spoke her peace before getting up and leaving as well. It wasn't long before she was followed by Minako, leaving the general, the miko, and the felines.

Rei squinted her eyes at Makoto and pointed to the door. "Get out," she hissed, and the brunette slowly stood up.

"Come on, Luna, Artemis," Makoto offered, "you can stay with me for the night." With that, the three were gone, leaving the miko to her thoughts.

Makoto walked with Luna and Artemis, taking all of the factors into consideration. "If it makes you feel any better, I think what you're doing is right," she finally commented as the trio approached Makoto's apartment.

"'What's right' doesn't matter in this, unfortunately," Luna confessed before silencing herself. The lobby of the apartment was fairly barren of people, save the observant manager. One peep out of her could have the press discovering the identities of the senshi.

The trio was also silent during the ride up the elevator, Makoto giving a subtle look to the top corner of the box to indicate that they were, in fact, being filmed.

However, the second they got into Makoto's apartment, Luna and Artemis went back to explaining. "While some of the past planetary guardians died in battle- in fact, most that died did die that way- others died in a... different manner," the tom struggled to explain, averting his eyes as Makoto changed into purple short-shorts and an oversized, white t-shirt for bed.

Hm, it always did seem odd to him that Makoto owned more purple clothing than green, despite the fact that all of the senshi had a habit of wearing their signature color or some sort of representing color, from Usagi's white to Minako's orange to Mamoru's black- heck, even Haruka generally wore tan, which could be loosely interpreted as a form of yellow.

Makoto turned to them, her ponytail whipping around and hitting the other side of her face. Her brows were scrunched together, and her lips formed a slight pout. "Define different," she requested.

Luna sighed, pursing her lips before beginning, "About twenty years ago, there was a group of guardians. They all began dying without any notice. The doctors couldn't find out what was going on, but we did eventually... It turns out that having these powers for more than two years and not being unlocked as _that senshi_ genetically from the Silver Millennium... it'll make you burn out."

Makoto's eyes dropped from Luna to the right and down a bit further before she lifted her eyes to glance out the window on her right. She let out a slow breath before turning back to the felines. "That's why I found Chloe, isn't it?" she asked. "Magic knows when something is up- it always does. I was about to burn out, wasn't I?"

"From what we could deduce, yes," Artemis nodded. "That's why we were actually glad to meet Chloe."

"But I thought the senshi already got their full powers and genetic identity and all that," Makoto objected as the idea came to her. "They all got their planetary crystals."

Artemis let out a snort. "And so did you- need I remind you how that ended, oh, say, two weeks ago?"

"Good point," Makoto said with a nervous laugh. She walked over to the living room and sat down on the couch, Luna and Artemis jumping up on the chair adjacent to her. The former senshi grew somber as she thought, and she took in a heavy breath- likely the tenth or twentieth that day. "So it's either, pass on their powers, or they die."

Luna nodded, head sinking towards the fabric of the chair. "We don't like it any more than they do, but until they unlock their potential; their abilities must be passed on."

* * *

15:10:08:16:22

The little blonde with her hair in a bun sat at the kitchen table, reading the newspaper with great interest. She paid absolutely no attention to the meal that had been placed before her: a few slices of turkey and provolone on bread, a glass of wine next to it.

"Stop reading that; it's depressing," the girl's brother ordered. "Odette, you'll just freak yourself out." He made his way to the island and pushed himself up to sit atop it- their mother would kill him.

The girl rolled her eyes, but other than that stayed focused on her reading. The two had the same cheekbones and eye shape, but nothing else of the twins seemed to align.

A grape hitting the blonde in the face finally got her undivided attention. She plastered a fake, irritated smile on her face and looked up to the brunette. "Yes, _Ben_?"

"It'd be great if you could get your nose out of the newspaper and join the real world," he suggested with a shrug, popping a grape in his mouth. The offending fruit came from the same vine as the one that had hit Odette, no doubt.

The blonde rolled her eyes yet again. "This is the real world," she claimed, waving the collection of papers in the air. "_I_ actually know what's going on, whereas _you_ are going to be living on the streets because you don't even know how to search the classifieds."

Ben scoffed, this being his turn to roll his eyes. "It's not like it's gonna matter," he declared. "We'll all be dead by the end of the week."

"I'm sure they said that on 9/11 in America, too," she told her brother seriously. "This is just some psycho who wants to freak out the people of France."

"Yeah, well it's working," Ben grumbled.

A voice from the adjacent room made both kids' heads turn. "Don't you two start fighting now! We've got to plan for your grandmother's birthday party!"

The twins sighed and got up from the respective perches. "Coming, Mom!"

* * *

15:07:37:32:59

"Eva Moreau," the teacher's dull voice droned on, much to the dark-skinned girl's... ignorance. The teacher walked forward slowly, a frown plastered upon her face. "Eva Moreau." Once again, the girl second from the back in the last row said nothing, just keeping her head on her desk. "_Eva Moreau_." The teacher slapped her ruler down on the teen's desk causing her to jump up and look to her teacher, shock and surprise in her eyes.

"Yes?" she asked, eyes still wide.

"Mademoiselle Moreau, thank you for joining us today," the teacher grit out. So what if it was the last day of school and testing was over? It was her classroom, and the students _would_ pay attention. "Would you care to translate the writing on the board into English?"

Eva turned her head to the front, her ponytail falling over one shoulder. In broken English, she said, "Once upon a midnight... dreary, while I... pondered weak and... weary."

The teacher sighed and walked back up to the front of the classroom. "Would anyone care to tell me what poetic work this line is from?"

It was no use. No one was paying her any attention- they were all too busy whispering about what had happened that morning. Panic was plentiful, an attack on the Eiffel Tower being viewed in the same light as the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. There were whispers about who could have made an attack such as this, whether it was an attack from another government or from a small group of people, or even if the attack came from aliens. God knew Japan had plenty of them.

The bell rang, and kids were out of there before the sound finished, differing from their usual, obedient manner. Despite the attempts to corral the kids into the gym, many broke out into the fresh air, headed towards their homes or their favorite hang-outs with their friends.

"Raphael!" Eva called to her friend, and the blond teenager turned around to face the girl. "You ready?"

Raphael smirked and opened his backpack slightly, revealing firecrackers. "This'll be hilarious," he told her, zipping the backpack back up. The two began running towards the blocked-off part of the city.

"So how did you get those on such short notice?" Eva asked, causing Raphael to laugh lightly.

"Please, I was planning on using these on the school," he explained. "This, however, is a much better opportunity."

Laughing all the way, Eva and Raphael worked their way through the city crowds until they were almost at the front. Eva pulled a matchbook out of her back pocket and removed a single match. The two shared a knowing look, and Eva lit the match. She ran it under three of the firecrackers as Raphael pulled them out, setting the wicks ablaze.

"Go, go, go, go, go!" Raphael urged, throwing the firecrackers over the police line. As sparks flew into the air and lights filled the area, Raphael and Eva fled the scene. "That was awesome!" he cheered amongst the panicked crowd running around.

Eva laughed. "Keep running!" she called. The two rounded a corner, running straight towards Raphael's house.

Meanwhile, some people were just trying to stay calm amongst the chaos. The brunette man known as Nicolas Lemarchal ducked under the police line, trying to keep the people at bay. "Ladies and gentlemen, please remain calm! It was just a couple of kids playing a prank." At least he prayed it was. France could not handle yet another attack.

"Nick, get over here!" Nicolas's comrade, Cass, called him over. Nicolas charged on over to the woman and kneeled down next to her. Some sort of green-yellow powder was on the tower's base, likely the residue from the attack.

"What is it?" the man questioned, causing the blonde woman next to him to turn her head.

Cass frowned, fear in her eyes. "I've seen this before, Nick, when I was deployed in England. Whenever a demon attacked, this was the residue they left after Sailor V stopped them. Paris is under attack by the Dark Kingdom."

15:07:07:23:48  
15:07:07:22:26  
15:07:07:21:53  
15:07:07:20:31

* * *

WOO! I reached over 3,000 words for a first chapter, not even counting author's notes or the disclaimer! For those of you that didn't read the beginning author's note, the little colon things are clocks that go Days: Hours: Minutes: Seconds: Milliseconds. So something big is going to happen when that clock hits zero. As for the little thing at the end, it's like in TV shows where a bomb is about to go off somewhere in the city or a meteor shower is about to hit Earth, and the big hero has to stop it. Before each commercial, they do a countdown of four or five seconds. So at the end of each chapter, you'll get a four second countdown.

It should also be noted that this takes one or two weeks after Jovian Sun. I pretty much explained the gist of it in the first "scene", though, so you're okay if you haven't read it.

I am really looking forward to seeing what you all think of this fic. I spent exactly twenty days working on this, from May 11th to May 31st. I've also got everything planned out through chapter five, but this is the only chapter I have fully written.


End file.
